“Murder didn’t mean much to Raven. It was just a new job.”
This is an early Graham Greene novel, and is probably most correctly labeled one of his “entertainments”. But like all the rest of the entertainments, there’s too much skill, talent, irony, and brain working here to find that an adequate label. Other entertainments like Our Man in Havana, are actually among my favorite of his books despite the incisiveness of The End of the Affair, The Quiet American, or The Heart of the Matter. This book probably shares the most in common with the book that soon follows on its heels Brighton Rock, which also explores underworld crime, men and women, and violence in general. The difference between them is that Brighton Rock is also an exploration of Catholicism and redemption.
This book begins with Raven, a gun for hire, taking on a new job, specifically murder, or really a kind of political assassination. It seems we’re in a foreign city (foreign from the UK) though all the primary characters here are British. Raven is using a false identity, actually taking on the name of his target, but he stands out because of a cleft palate that he tries to cover up with facial hair and eventually surgery. He’s motivated by very little other than his talents, but he becomes involved with a woman who is engaged (maybe?) to a police inspector. It’s plot and character-driven novel, a thriller, not a mystery, but it’s replete Greene’s talent for dialog, character, and wit.